Survival in Theater
by Team Shadow
Summary: 22 teenagers enter the haunted Cobb Civic Center to perform their play, only 6 make it out alive.
1. Character List

Character List

Ti Moune-Makenzie

Daniel-Ben

Andrea-Christina

Papa Ge-Sean

Erzulie-Mimi

Asaka-Emma

Agwe-Aaron

Story Tellers-Elizabeth, Anna, Shilpa, and Frank

Mama Euralie-Ana

Tonton Julian-Carston

Little Ti Moune-Riley

Daniel's Father-Sedrick

Daniel's son-Jackson

Gossipers-Caroline, Emily, Ashlyn and Mady

Stage Crew-Zoe and Max


	2. Prologue

On April 27th, 2012, 22 young teens entered the supposedly haunted Cobb Civic Center to perform a play, Once on This Island Jr. Three days later, 16 are pronounced dead. The other 6, found, alive, and severally injured. I am one of those six young teens. And this is my story.


	3. The Nightmare Begins

My name is Zoe, and I was working as stage crew for my school's drama show, Once on this Island Jr. Now that I think back on it, I wish I had never accepted the position. But if I wasn't in the building, Mimi might have died.

For those of you who don't know, the Cobb Civic Center is like this: Five floors. Floor one is the stage. Floor two is the greenroom. Floor three are the dressing rooms and bathrooms. Floor four is a huge empty room with a mirror, that's where the actors warm up. Floor five is the haunted attic, where apparently someone died in the late 1900s. Well, 16 more died within three days, that's where this story begins.

The nightmare began five hours before the play. Our teacher, Neeahtima, was no where to be found. In fact, none of the adults in our play were anywhere to be found. So we took it upon ourselves to begin warm up without them. While the actors warmed up, Max, my stage crew buddy, and I were setting up the sets. When we were done, Max headed up to help people warm up, while I went to the bathrooms. As I finished washing my hands, a message appeared on the mirror. I froze, and read it.

"GET OUT" It said. Confused, I just went upstairs. Probably Aaron pulling a prank. Again. As I get to the fourth floor, the door opens quickly and almost slams my face. I walk into the room were the actors are singing a song from the play "We Dance".

Then, just as quickly as the door opened, the floor collapsed. And down we fell.

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What did you guys think, huh? Good cliff hanger, am I right? Amiright? (noimnot)

Please review! The next few chapters will be longer, I promise!


	4. Rubble

I open my eyes. I see blackness. My body feels like meteors hit it. I can't feel any part of my body. I don't know if I'm dead or alive.

"Hello!" I hear a familiar voice. It sounds like Elizabeth, my best friend.

"Anyone alive?" I hear another voice, that is no doubt Ben's.

"Over here." I say, my voice dry and raspy. I need some water. Elizabeth and Ben come over, I can tell because of their footsteps, and start moving the rubble that is covering me. Slowly but surely I see the outline of them under the dim lights. They move the rubble and help me up.

"What happen?" I ask, stretching my back.

"The floor collapsed from underneath us. The attic fell on top of us. We are looking for survivors. As of now, only us three are alive, that we know of." Ben says in a hoarse tone. I look around the room. The once warm up room, with a huge mirror and pretty grey walls are now cracked and look like they'll cave in any second. Then, we hear a tiny cry.

"Hello?" Elizabeth says, turning to her left. We all move closer, trying not to trip on any rocks and pieces of the wall. We see some hair, and hear more cries. We move the walls and rocks and see Mimi.

"Mimi!" Ben shouts, then coughs a little. He picks her up. She looks weak and tired. Her pink dress is ripped and a strap came off. She puts her arms around his neck.

"My foot feels sprained." She says, with hiccups. "I wanna go home." She says, crying again.

"Shh, it's ok Mimi." Ben says, comforting her. "We're going home. We just need to find a way out of this building."

We walk around the room, trying to find more survivors. As we give up, we see Makenzie and Shilpa moving rubble and trying to get up. Elizabeth and I go help them.

"Are y'all ok?" Elizabeth asks, helping Shilpa get up. Shilpa nods, and as soon as she's free she helps me get the rocks off of Makenzie.

We find two more survivors as we get close to the stairwell, Aaron and Ana.

We all walk to the once stairwell. Many stairs are broken and some look weak.

"Anyone volunteer to go first?" I ask, throwing some rubble onto the stairs. Two more of the stairs fall.

"I have a plan." Makenzie says. "Aaron and Ben will lower me down to the second floor, then I'll help people get down."

"That might not be safe." Ana says.

"Well right now we really don't have much of a choice, now do we." Makenzie says. Ben give me Mimi as Mackenzie sits on the ledge of the once stairwell. Ben and Aaron take her arms and she slowly gets closer to the second floor. When she gets about a foot from touching the floor, Aaron and Ben let her go and she lands on the floor. She turns around and looks up at us.

"Who's next?" She asks.

"I'll go." Ana says. She sits on the ledge, the boys help her down, and Makenzie catches her. Ben goes next, then Elizabeth, Shilpa, then me. I give Mimi to Aaron and hang off the ledge and Makenzie and Ben catch me. Aaron lets Mimi go down, and I hold Mimi again. We turn to the right and walk into the greenroom. Most of the green walls are still intact, but the roof is crumbling down and the floor has fallen, just a bit. Parts of the crumpled roof was blocking our way.

"Now what?" Shilpa asks.

"Should we move the rocks or try and find another way out?" Elizabeth asks.

"Aaron and Ben will start moving the rocks." Makenzie says. "Shilpa and I will go around, looking for another way down. Everyone good with that?" No one objects.

Ana, Elizabeth, and I go over and sit down on the floor to examine Mimi's leg. We roll up her dress and rest her leg on my lap.

"Does this hurt?" I ask, pushing her leg a little. She nods. We move her leg a few more times before we make a conclusion.

"It's broken." Elizabeth says. "I would know, mine just healed a month ago." Elizabeth looked down at her leg that was in a cast not so long ago.

"Shilpa!" Makenzie screams from the distance. Everybody but Mimi runs to where her screams were coming from. We get to her, and see her on her knees, looking down. Shilpa's body lays two floors down, on rubble, and she isn't moving.


	5. The Human Heart

"Shilpa's gone." I say, choked up. We all watch her lifeless body, hoping she'll get up. But it's no use.

We all say a quick prayer to Shilpa, and go back into the green room. The boys continue working on the rocks covering the stairwell that leads to the next floor, but slowly.

"Why don't we just rest." I say. The boys look at me, as does everyone else.

"It's been a rough day. We're all exhausted. Let's just rest." The boys come over and sit down with us. Most of us start falling asleep, but Mimi and I stay awake. I'm not tired and I think Mimi is in too much pain to sleep. I feel so bad for her. She's so young, yet's endured so much. As I begin to sleep, I hear her little voice quietly singing.

"_The courage of a dreamer. The innocence of youth. The failures and the foolishness that lead us to the truth_." I join her singing.

"_The hopes that make us happy. The hopes that don't come true_." People start stirring, but Mimi and I don't stop.

"_And all the love there ever was. I see this all in you._" Makenzie, Ana, and Elizabeth join for the chorus.

"_You are part, part of the human heart._" Mimi sings her part, the girls sing their part, and Ben and Aaron sing their part.

"_You are part… you are part…. you are part…._" We all sing the next verus.

"_Of all who took the journey, and managed to endure. The ones who knew such tenderness, the ones who felt so sure. The ones who came before you. The others yet to come. And those who you will teach it to. And those you learned it from. You are part, part of the human heart._" We all split for our parts again.

"_You are part….you are part…..you are part….._" We all join again for the last line.

"_Tonight…Tonight…_" We let Mimi finish the song.

"_Part of the human heart_." We all clap for Mimi, and then sit silently.

"Hello?" A deep voice makes us all jump. But that voice, everyone recognizes. Frank.

"Frank!" We all shout. He's behind the rubble that the boys were moving earlier.

"Hate to break up your singing fest, but we need to get out of here." He says, beginning to move the rocks on his side, as Ben and Aaron move the rocks on our ride. In a short 15 minutes, theres a good path for us to use. I pick up and hold Mimi, and we all go through the opening in the rocks.

"How'd you survive? We looked for survivors." Elizabeth says, as the guys help her through the opening.

"I woke up after you guys left. I went the other way though, and somehow made it down here. I would've kept going if you weren't singing." Frank says, helping Makenzie go through the opening. Then, quiet Mimi asks a question that none of had thought about.

"Why did the floor collapse?" We all freeze and glance at each other.

"Is this place really haunted?" She asks, looking at us all.

"I think so." I respond. I proceed to tell them what happened to me earlier, in the bathroom.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Frank asks.

"Well, I assumed it was Aaron playing a trick!" I respond, a little mad Frank would accuse me.

"There's no such thing as ghosts." Ana points out.

"But we still need to know why this happened." Elizabeth says.

"What about the attic?" Mimi says, quieting us all again.

"That's where all the answers would be." Makenzie says. "Many people have died there. We could at least check it out."

"But shouldn't we work on surviving?" Ana asks.

"But we don't want this to happen to anyone else. If we can find proof this place is dangerous, we could get this place shut down." Makenzie says.

"She has a point." I say.

"Who thinks we should go to the attic, say I." Aaron says. Makenzie, Elizabeth, Aaron, Mimi, Ben and I say I. Only Ana and Frank disagree.

"The attic it is." Aaron says.

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So how was it? If you want to find the song and listen along (hey, that rhymes!) go to YouTube and type in "Human Heart Once On This Island Jr lyrics" and it should be the first one to pop up. Thanks!


	6. Evidence

We went up the same way we came down. We ended up in the attic, it's tattered floors still intact, somehow, its dusty walls more dusty than usual. No lights in this room. The only lights we have is our cell phones. Actually, only Ben and I have our phones. Everyone else's perished in the collapse.

"What are we looking for, exactly?" Ana asks, slowing down as we enter the room.

"Proof that this building is haunted." Makenzie says "Too many of our friends lives have been lost for us to just leave here alive." We all start looking around, looking for some hint to prove this building is haunted. I don't know how long exactly we looked for, but so far no success.

"Hey guys, over here!" Aaron shouts from the corner. We all make our way to the corner as he picks up a piece of tattered notebook paper, stained in blood.

"What does it say?" Makenzie asks, looking over Aaron's shoulder. He begins reading the letter.

"If you are reading this, get out. You only have a few minutes. Get out and don't come back. The girl is here. She's watching you. It won't be long before she strikes again. My brother was the last victim of her attack. Let him be the last.

-Sarah"

"What does this mean?" Mimi asks.

"Who's _she?"_ I ask.

"Who's Sarah?" Ben asks.

"Guys. Look" Elizabeth says, pointing to a newspaper on the ground. Aaron runs and picks it up and reads the headline.

"13 Year Old Girl Commits Suicide in Cobb Civic Center." He skims the story and learns that a 13 year old girl named Alana was trapped in the attic of this building, and committed suicide after being locked in the attic for three days. People say her ghost still haunts the attic.

"So Alana's ghost is still here?" I ask, still a little unsure of the whole thing. Then I realize. Alana's contacted me. In the girls bathroom. On the mirror.

"Apparently so." Makenzie said. "But we're going to need more proof than just a newspaper article."

"I have proof." I say, quieting my voice. Everyone freezes and stares at me. "Well, when I went to the bathroom, in the mirror, words begin to appear saying "GET OUT." I didn't think much of it, but now that I do, I think it was Alana sending me a message for us to get out of the building. And when we didn't listen, we got punished."

"Well how does that help us?" Frank asks.

"Well, I think the writing was in her blood." I say. "If we could get a sample of that and get it tested, that could be enough proof to get this building shut down."

"Good idea." Frank says sarcastically "But the bathrooms are blocked off with rocks. I saw them before I found you guys. Plus, the blood is probably gone, if there was blood in the first place."

"So your doubting me?" I ask, as I put my hands to my hips.

"We should at least try." Elizabeth says.

"We need to save ourselves first." Frank angrily says. "We shouldn't put our lives in danger for a myth that probably isn't true." Just as Frank says that, and I open my mouth to speak, the Earth starts vibrating. The ceiling starts crumpling.

"Run!" Makenzie says. No one needs to hear it twice. We all scramble to the stairs. I do a quick head count. Only seven people. Who's the eighth?

"Help!" A little girls voice shouts. Mimi!

"Mimi!" I shout. She can't run with her broken leg. I turn around and run back into the room and pick her up.

"Zoe hurry!" Elizabeth screams. I run back and the many huge pieces of the ceiling start falling down.

"The paper!" Aaron shouts. During the rush, he dropped the letter. It's a goner. Then, Frank runs into the collapsing room and grabs the letter. He crumples it up and throws it at Aaron as the floor collapses from under him. The Earth stops shaking.

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**So how was it? Please review!**


	7. The Blood

We all run downstairs, well, walk quickly. Walk into the room, and rocks are covering it. Then, we see part of Frank's shirt. Mimi lets out a tear. Then, I let out a tear. Pretty soon, all of us are crying,

"Even though Frank got on my nerves at times, he had a great personality." Makenzie says, getting down on her knees.

"He never failed to make me laugh." I say, getting down too, gently placing Mimi on the floor.

"I won't forget his crush on me." Elizabeth says "And how we spoke Spanish to him, and he never knew what we were saying." She gets down too.

"He was my bro." Aaron says, getting down.

"Mine too." Ben says, also getting down on his knees.

"I liked stealing his food. He never wanted it back, cause I always spit in it." Ana says, getting down. We pray for Frank, and for everyone who's life has been lost, and we all get up.

"Let's go to the bathroom." Makenzie says. We get down to the bathrooms, with little in our way. The only thing blocking our was was the girls bathroom door, which refused to move. Even with both Aaron and Ben pushing at it.

"Let me try." Makenzie says, helping the boys. It doesn't do any good though. That door refuses to move. I look around, for other possible solutions, when something catches my eye. Theres an opening at the top of the door. One small enough for someone of Mimi's size.

"Look." I say, pointing to the top of the door. "If we could get Mimi into that crack, she could get the blood."

"What about her leg?" Ben asks. We all look at Mimi.

"I think I could do it." Mimi says. We all exchange glances, knowing this is the only way to get into the bathroom. Aaron and Ben lift me up slightly and I lift Mimi to the crack. She extends her good leg and slowly slips through the crack. She gets to the other side and Aaron and Ben let me go.

"What do you see?" Makenzie asks.

"I see the mirror and the blood. It does say "GET OUT". But what should I put the blood in?" We all look at each other, baffled that we didn't think about that. We look around, and Ana finds a sandwich container from a lunchbox, that is still intact. We throw it into the crack and Mimi gets the blood in the container.

"I got it!" She shouts. "How do I get out?" She asks. It feels like a million rocks just hit me. Mimi's trapped behind the door.

"Do you see anything you could climb on top of?" Ben asks. We hear shuffling from behind the door and Mimi replies.

"Yes, part of a chair. I think it'll work." There's more shuffling from behind the door and pretty soon we see Mimi's blonde hair. Aaron and Ben lift me up again and I pull her out from in the crack. The boys place us on the floor and we group hug.

"You were so brave, Mimi." Elizabeth says. We all move back when we hear sniffling.

"Why are you crying?" I ask Mimi softly.

"I wanna go home." She says between hiccups. "I wanna see mommy and daddy and all my friends again." She starts sobbing. "I wanna go home." She puts her head on my shoulder and I hug her.

"We all are going home Mimi. You've been so brave, we're going home." I say. Her tears won't lighten up, so I get an idea. A song.

"One small girl. In a tree. Torn from her mother. Crying in fright. One small girl. Tossed by sea. And left to face the stormy night. One small girl. Holding tight!" That seemed to calm Mimi a little bit. Her cries stop for a moment, but return. I feel bad, I don't know what I'm supposed to do now. I look around at my friends standing around me.

"Black clouds are behind me. I now can see ahead. Often I wonder why I try. Hoping for an end. Sorrow weighs my shoulders downs and trouble haunts my mind. But I know the present will not last and tomorrow will be kinder." Makenzie sings.

"Tomorrow will be kinder. Its true I've seen it before. A brighter day is coming my way. Yes tomorrow will be kinder. Today I've cried a many tears. And pain is in my heart. Around me lies a slumber scene. I don't know where to start. But I feel warmth on my skin, the starts have all aligned. The wind has blown and now I know. Tomorrow will be kinder." She crouches down and hugs Mimi, who has stopped crying.

"Tomorrow will be kinder. I know I've seen it before. A brighter day is coming my way. Yes tomorrow will be kinder. A brighter day is coming my way. Yes tomorrow will be kinder." She lets Mimi go and Ben picks her up.

"I know you want to go home. We will. We will see mommy and daddy again. But right now, your safe, protected by your friends who love you, and a brother who loves you. I'm not _that _bad of a brother, am I?" Ben says, making her giggle.

"And I know it's been hard, watching your friends come and go. But they're in a better place right now. They're surrounded by angels and clouds and they are watching down on us. They're giving us the strength we need to get out of this building." He hugs her, and she hugs him back.

"Awwwwww" Aaron says, making people quietly laugh,

"I love you." Mimi says to Ben. I smile. This is not the best time for family bonding time, but we may not get another chance for one.

"I love you to, Mimster." Ben looks up at us. "What's our next plan of action? I refuse to let Alana kill anyone else."

"Well, now we just need to get out." Makenzie says. And out we will get. Hopefully, without and fatalities.

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**Yay it's done! Um, please review! Thanks**


	8. A Way Out

From the girls bathroom, you only have to go down two floors to get to the exit. Sounds simple, right? Well, it would be, if you didn't have a murderous ghost trying to kill you every second they can.

Over and under more rocks we go, from floor three, to floor two, then down to the bottom floor. The stage. We walk down the crumpled stairs with ease, then walk out to the stage. The stage is still intact, but the red velvet chairs in the audience, a different story.

"Wow." Aaron says, looking from rock to rock. Basically, the whole audience is covered in rocks. Which is basically, the only way out, through the audience.

"Show must go on." Makenzie says, walking to the rocks, and starts moving them. She turns around and says, "Well are you idiots just going to stand their or are you going to help me?" Aaron and Ben jump off the stage and start helping her. I sit down on the ledge of the stage, Mimi in my lap, and Elizabeth and Ana sit on both sides of me.

"I wish this was all just a dream" Ana whispers "I wish I could just pinch myself awake from this nightmare, everyone would still be alive, and we could be home."

"I agree." Elizabeth says. "But it's not a dream. It's a real situation that has happened, that we have been fortunate enough to survive." We stay silent for a minute, until Mimi speaks up.

"Are the adults looking for us? Do they know we're trapped in here?" She asks, her brown eyes full of curiosity.

"I'm sure they are doing their best from the outside to help us. There probably trying to dig the rocks out from outside to come in and save us." I say. Mimi smiles, and rests her head on my lap and falls asleep.

After about two hours, my butt hurts, and the rocks have barley moved. Every time they move the rocks, more fall down to take their place. They have only cleared about 4 feet of rocks. At this rate, we'll get out of here in 20 years. More or less.

"Guys, this isn't working." I say. Makenzie, Ben, and Aaron look at me.

"We're never going to get out of here at this rate. Is there another way out of here besides through the audience?" I ask. We all start looking around the room.

"What about that?" Ana says, pointing to this big metal garage door.

"Yeah!" Elizabeth says. We all stand up and run to the door. It looks like it could still open, but we need to press a button to open it.

"Where's the button?" I ask. We all look around. Then, Makenzie points to the sound booth above us.

"One of the guys was up there, pressing buttons, while they were bringing in the props. He pressed a button up there, and this door shut. So I'm assuming its up there." She says.

"How did he get up there?" Elizabeth asks.

"A ladder." Makenzie responds.

"Well wheres the latter?" Ana asks. We then all go on a mad hunt for the ladder, looking under rocks and rubble, until Ben finds it.

"Over here!" He shouts. We all run over there, and help him pull it out from under the rocks. We then bring it over to where it needs to go, and place it there.

"Someone light should go up there, so holding the ladder will be easier." I say. We all look at Mimi, and ask if she thinks she could do it. She shakes her head.

"Not with my leg. It hurts too much." She replies.

"I can do it." Ana says. No one objects, so we all hold the ladder as she slowly, but surely climbs to the sound booth. She gets inside, and starts looking around.

"There are a lot of buttons in here!" She shouts.

"Just start pressing random ones!" Aaron shouts back. She starts pressing some, and lights turn on, music plays, the curtain goes down. Then, we feel a vibration.

"Take cover!" Makenzie shouts. We all scramble, and get down to our knees. I get over Mimi so she's protected. Many little rocks scratch up my back, but other than that I didn't receive any serious injuries. Soon enough, the vibration stops. I stand up and pick up Mimi and search the room. No one really got hurt, soon, all of us are back to the garage door.

"Ana!" Elizabeth shouts up to the sound booth. No response.

"Ana! Are you alright?" I shout. No response.

Suddenly, the garage door opens. But no sign of Ana. We hold the ladder, letting Makenzie climb up to the sound booth. She looks around, then quickly comes back down.

"She's not there." She says, freaked out. "But there's blood on the buttons." She doesn't say anymore. Alana got Ana, and if we don't get out, any one of us could be next.

We stand side by side, holding hands, and letting the sunlight hit our face as we step outside. We keep walking, not daring to turn back. Not even as the sound as the garage door closing echoes throughout the parking lot.

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**So theres the second to last chapter! The next chapter will be the epilogue. But what did y'all think of the story? Lame? Suckish? Awesome? Please tell me in reviews!**


	9. Epilogue

We were immediately found by a police officer, and taken to the hospital. Us six made a promise that we weren't going to answer questions individually, only answer them in groups. Mostly because no one will believe us if we tell them a ghost girl was killing people.

After almost two months in the hospital, we were set free to go. Only Mimi had serious injuries, her broken leg, other than that we were all fine. They only kept us in the hospital because they though we had brain injuries, since we wouldn't answer questions. Pretty soon, they learned we just didn't want to talk about it until we had recovered, and they left us alone.

We did tell the police about the haunted building eventually, and showed them proof. They said they would look into it, but the building was never officially shut down until 2025.

After the incident at the theater, it took us all time to recover. It was like a never ending, we just couldn't wake up. Eventually, we all did go on with our lives, graduated high school and college. We kept in touch over the years. In fact, Aaron and Makenzie got married right after college and now have two beautiful daughters, Ana and Emily.

Elizabeth married her high school boyfriend, Alex. She had a daughter whom she named Jordon.

Ben married his girlfriend from college, Kylie. They don't have any children yet, but Kylie is pregnant with a baby boy that their going to name Michael. Mimi just got married, but she isn't pregnant. Ben told me she wants a baby soon, though.

As for me, I married my high school crush. Dylan. We have two girls, twins. We named them Samantha and Riley.

Every month, all six of us meet up at the Starbucks closest to the theater, and catch up on our lives. We also give thanks to the 18 teenagers, our friends, who lost their lives that day. We thank them for giving us the chance to live.

"Do you think they're mad at us? Because we lived and they didn't?" Mimi asks.

"No" Makenzie says "I bet they are smiling down on us from heaven and glad we lived. I wish everyone had lived, and what happened was a sad thing. But at least we stopped it from happening to anymore kids."

"That's true." Mimi says. We drink our coffee and eat muffins in silence. We have come a long way in our friendships since that one day.

Terrible things have happened in our past, that we will never get over. Things happen for a reason. That's life.

But life goes on, as well all know. We will die one day, but our courage will inspire many children. Never give up. Even when it looks like it couldn't get any better.

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**Woot! This story is done! What did y'all think? please tell me in reviews! Reviews mean a lot to me! Thanks and have a great day**


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